Tobermory Golf Club

Tobermory Golf Club is a 9-hole hillside course laid out above the famous painted-house harbour on the Isle of Mull. The course sits 350 feet above sea level, with views across the Sound of Mull to Morvern and the mainland. On a clear day you can see Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and the Small Isles.

The course was founded 1896 and has changed remarkably little since. Par is 32 across 2,460 yards (so 64/4920 if you play it twice round, which most visitors do). It is a hillside parkland in the highland sense — short, sharp, with elevated tees and small greens. The 4th, played from a clifftop tee with the harbour directly below, is the postcard hole.

Pay through the honesty box on the course or at the small clubhouse if it's open — usually evenings. £25 for a round, £30 for the day, which lets you play the loop twice. There are no caddies, no buggies, and a genuine likelihood that you'll have most of the course to yourself, especially before lunch and after seven. Hire clubs available from the clubhouse.

Getting to Mull: CalMac ferry from Oban to Craignure (45 min), then bus 495 to Tobermory (1 hour) or hire car. As a round, Tobermory is more travel than golf; as an experience, it's one of the great memories of a Scottish trip. Worth it on the way to or from the Western Isles, or as a day-out from the mainland.